


serendipity

by knightspur



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ambiguous Relationships, Angst and Feels, M/M, Mentions of Sex, No Plot/Plotless, minor character injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-28
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2019-01-06 10:34:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12209496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/knightspur/pseuds/knightspur
Summary: Minghao doesn't need him, he never has. He's tougher than his skinny frame leads people to believe. Stubborn, sharp, sometimes too smart for his own good.But Minghao still shows up at the door of Jun's apartment.





	serendipity

Xu Minghao takes care of himself. Jun has been reminded of this a dozen, hundred, thousand times. Minghao doesn't need him, he never has. He's tougher than his skinny frame leads people to believe. Stubborn, sharp, sometimes too smart for his own good. 

But Minghao still shows up at the door of Jun's apartment, soaking wet from the rain outside with cherry-red hair falling into his eyes and a scowl on his face. Jun would like to pretend, for the sake of his own sanity, that he doesn't know exactly how many days it's been since he last saw Minghao (42). Or since he last heard Minghao on the phone, late at night with the line crackling and his voice husky and low against Jun's ear. 

_”I'll take care of it,” he'd said. Like he always does. “You worry too much, Jun-ge.”_

Twenty days ago. Jun remembers that he sounded scared, the way he rarely lets himself.

Minghao looks at him, the frown on his face smoothed away and covered by a little smirk like even now he can't let Jun see what's really going on. Jun lets him in any way, he always does. 

“Take your coat off,” he says, trying to sound off-handed about it. There's a basket of folded laundry laying next to the couch, and he paws through it to find something dry to wear, his back turned. Minghao doesn't say anything, at least not yet, but Jun can hear the wet smack of his hoodie hitting the floor. 

When he turns around, a clean sweater in one hand, he's not entirely surprised to find Minghao standing in the entryway still, scuffing one beat up shoe against the floor. His shirt is damp too, the thin white fabric clinging to his skin, and Jun rolls his eyes. “That too. Are you hungry?”

It's a useless question since Jun always feeds him anyway, but it usually works to get Minghao talking. 

“Sure,” he says, his long fingers fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. “Go cook something.”

Jun may not always share Minghao’s clever edge, but he can see through the pathetic effort to get rid of him. He frowns, dropping the arm holding onto the sweater to his side, watching Minghao more closely. He's standing ramrod straight and the scowl is back on his face. 

Last time Jun saw him, his hair was brown and shorter, the longest locks just starting to curl around his ears. Minghao licks his lips, both eyebrows lifting and disappearing under his bangs. “What?”

“Take it off,” he says, his voice carrying more of a command than usual. Minghao purses his lips, his eyes darting toward the door behind him like he's thinking of escape again. 

It wouldn't be the first time, and Jun has no illusions that Minghao is here to stay. He takes a careful step forward like he's trying to close in on an injured animal.

“Let me see,” he says, softer this time. Minghao still has both hands at the hem of his shirt his arms crossed like he's still trying to protect himself. “Xiao Hao—”

“Don't,” Minghao says, quick and sharp. He pulls his shirt off, wrestling it over his head and dropping it to the floor, staring at Jun with his chin tilted up. Defiant. Jun’s the one person who knows him better. 

There's a layer of old bruises on Minghao’s chest. The kind that makes Jun's hand curl into a loose fist but doesn't surprise him. It's not enough to make Minghao try to hide. But Jun's eyes are drawn to the wicked curve of a slash on his right side, stitched shut but still red and fresh. 

Jun sucks in a sharp breath, stepping forward the rest of the way and putting his hand on Minghao’s hip, below the cut. He can feel the jut of bone under his skin and Minghao flinches for a second like he doesn't expect Jun's hand to cup softly around his skin. 

He wants to ask, but pressing Minghao with questions rarely gets him any answers. He rubs his thumb against Minghao’s skin, tacky and damp.

“It's fine,” Minghao says, tilting his chin down to look at the cut. He shakes his head a little, and standing close Jun can smell the dye in his hair. “I got it taken care of.”

Another thing that he doesn't need Jun for. “You should have a bandage on it.”

Minghao rolls his eyes at the scolding, his hand coming to rest on Jun's. “It's alright.”

And Jun has no idea how he ends up with Minghao acting like he's the one that needs comfort. He shakes his head, drawing his hand up Minghao’s side a little, thumb pressing into each of his ribs as it goes.

“You lost weight again,” he says, sighing. He should step back. Let go and go into the kitchen and make food for both of them. But he doesn't want to, not quite yet. Even if Minghao is all sharp angles and rain cooled skin, Jun wants to be close to him. Minghao has his lips pursed together slightly, looking at Jun’s hand like he doesn’t know what to do with the soft touch of it. They’re standing close enough that Jun has the slight advantage of height over Minghao, enough that he can lower his head and press his face into Minghao’s damp hair.

He smells like hair dye and rain and gasoline and Jun shuts his eyes. Minghao has his arms limp at his sides and Jun is about to let him go when Minghao lifts his hands, setting one tentatively on Jun’s elbow.

“Sorry, Jun-ge,” he says, so soft that Jun almost misses it, his chin tilted down toward his collarbone. “I don’t mean to just show up like this…”

Jun shakes his head, still pressed to Minghao’s hair, using his other arm to pull Minghao’s skinny frame into a proper embrace. He doesn’t feel like he has to say it each time, that Minghao will always have a place wherever he is. They’ve become so tangled that Jun is no longer sure what they even are to one another; old flames, or family, or just an obligation one way or the other. 

It doesn’t matter— it never has. They are whatever kind of relationship Minghao seems to need most when he shows up. Sometimes they’re whatever Jun needs to tell himself, to explain away the attachment so he can sleep at night.

He presses a small kiss to the crown of Minghao’s head before he lets go of him, passing the clean shirt into his hands. He nods at the bathroom, though he knows Minghao probably can remember where it is. “You can shower if you want. I’ll make something.”

There’s less of a mask to Minghao’s features; the edges of his mouth a little softer, almost lifting into a real smile. “Alright.”

He shuts the door behind him softly and Jun putters around in the kitchen, scowling a little at the bare contents of his fridge. He can hear the shower running and it’s a reminder of how comforting he always finds it to have Minghao around, no matter how briefly. There’s always an empty space left in Jun’s life, where he tries to make sure Minghao will always have a place to return to.

Before Minghao gets out of the shower, Jun already knows how things will go. They’ll eat and Minghao won’t talk about where he’s been but he’ll talk about other things if Jun asks the right questions. They’ll both sleep in Jun’s bed, even if Minghao starts out on his couch. Sometimes they have sex and sometimes they don’t and Jun usually doesn’t care which way it goes so long as he gets to sleep with Minghao tucked against his chest, listening to the steady pattern of his breathing.

Always, Minghao is gone before Jun wakes up in the morning. He never takes anything; money from Jun’s wallet, or fresh clothes, or the picture of the two of them as teenagers that Jun has hanging on one of his walls. There’s never a trace of him in the morning. In many ways, Minghao is more like a stray cat than a boy that Jun loves with some confused piece of his heart. He comes and goes as he pleases and Jun feeds him and cares for his hurts but never has any real claim to him.

It doesn’t stop Jun from hoping things will be different this time. It doesn’t stop him from smiling when Minghao comes out of the bathroom with his hair dripping wet still, hooking his chin over Jun’s shoulder to see what he’s making.

Minghao is untameable, but Jun is constant. He always hopes things will be different this time.

**Author's Note:**

> This is just something I've been working on off and on when I've been having trouble sleeping?? Idk. There's not a lot going on with it, just some junhao feels.


End file.
